The football players of the class of 1970 were part of a few "firsts" for me and also the Academy football program.

My first head coaching job was as the B squad head coach in the fall of 1966, your freshman year. Earl Wetzel and Sgt. Max Bielke, both now deceased, were my two assistant coaches, Bielke paid and Wetzel an unpaid volunteer. (See posted team picture.) Many of you were on that B squad football team. I kept you together as a freshman unit on that sophomore team, and that was the creation of the first unofficial organized freshman football team in Academy football history. We played St. Agnes at West Minnehaha playground as the first exclusively freshman football team in Academy football history. Today, there is a separate 9th grade team with 50+ players and four paid coaches that plays a full schedule of eight games. You started it all!

My first head coaching job in a 21-year football head coaching career was in 1969, the fall of your senior year. Your team finished undefeated, the second undefeated football team in Academy football history (Bill Ridley's 1968 team was the first) and won its first game 66-0 over Brady. That 1969 team was then chosen as 1969 CATHOLIC STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS by a credible newspaper poll (there were no playoffs at that time). That was the FIRST State Football Championship in Saint Thomas Academy history! Subsequently, there have been two others, 1971 and 1975.

Your team was an important memory for me and a milestone for the school.

I began my teaching career in the fall of 1966 after being a volunteer football coach for Skip McMahon and Bill Ridley from 1963 on. My first official salaried coaching position was as B Squad coach in your freshman year. I worked for the Academy until my retirement in 2001, teaching math for 21 years before moving into the Development Office in numerous roles for 14 more years. In those first 21 years I taught primarily Algebra and Geometry and coached football at two levels, basketball, baseball and track and served as Athletic Director for five years. In my 14 years in the Development Office I was the Alumni Director, Director of Alumni Annual Giving, Director of all Annual Giving, Major Gifts Officer and the creator, editor and publisher of the STA Magazine. For a few years I wrote every word, took every picture and did all the design and layout of the magazine and took it camera-ready to the printer, all that while leading the Annual Fund. When I retired, five different people were hired to do my jobs. I took five years off then joined the now-Advancement Office as a fund-raising consultant.

Figge stalks me! T.J. is a regular email correspondent.

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